Posted 1/16/2019 11:30:07 CET
PARIS, Jan. 16 (Reuters / EP) –
The French government has asked the Renault group to convene its board of directors on January 20 so that the company will definitively replace Carlos Ghosn as head of the automotive consortium, after being accused in Japan of a supposed case of tax evasion and bad practices .
To date, the French government has supported Renault’s decision to keep Ghosn in charge until the manager is tried in Japan for aggravating Nissan’s breach of confidence and for reporting a lower income than he actually received at the head of the company. Japanese car manufacturer.
After two months of the arrest of Ghosn (on November 19), France, which holds 15% of the capital of the multinational and two seats on the board of directors, aims to accelerate the process of change at the top of the French manufacturer, according to sources quoted by ‘Reuters’.
For its part, the Renault group appointed Thierry Bolloré as interim CEO and found no irregularity in a preliminary audit of Ghosn and ensures that the compensation of the director as president and CEO of the French firm and the conditions under which it was approved they are in compliance with the applicable law and under the corporate governance code of listed companies AFEP-MEDEF.
Likewise, it affirms that it has not detected any type of fraud in the remuneration system of its directors during the years 2017 and 2018.
However, the company will continue to review the remunerations of previous years, as initially requested. In addition, the years analyzed by the executives of the French automobile consortium do not cover the years in which Ghosn allegedly committed the fraud.
JEAN-DOMINIQUE SENARD (MICHELIN), POSSIBLE CANDIDATE
Other names that are within the list of candidates to lead Renault are Didier Leroy (Toyota) or Philippe Guillemot (Elior), according to sources close to the discussions.
Ghosn, who has been denied bail by the Tokyo District Court, has been formally charged with an aggravated breach of trust for temporarily transferring personal investment losses to Nissan in 2008, as well as for underestimating his retribution for three years until 2018
The manager is accused of informing Japanese supervisors of a lower income than he actually received. In particular, he is accused of publishing financial compensation for his responsibility in front of Nissan of less than half of the 88 million dollars (77 million euros) he received for five years since 2010.
In addition, the Japanese Prosecutor also accuses Ghosn, Nissan and former director representative of the manufacturer Greg Kelly of not having declared part of the compensation received by the head of the company between March 2015 and March 2018.
Ghosn has pleaded not guilty before the Japanese Justice in his first public appearance since he was arrested last almost two months ago and said he was unjustly accused. “I have been unjustly accused and unjustly detained for unfounded accusations,” he says.
For its part, Nissan plans to file a new civil lawsuit against its former president to claim the damages resulting from the alleged misuse of company funds.
“The investigation (on the alleged financial misconduct of Ghosn) continues to expand, so we will file a lawsuit after the problem has been resolved,” said a source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.